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Thursday, October 25, 2012

Day 9- Character Punch Antic

Day 9 had to be one of the best days. You know why? Because the professor didn't assign us any drawing pages for homework! This gives us more time to work on more personal animations; perfecting backgrounds, adding on to our animated characters and working on our own character model sheets. With all the time he's granted us I'm expecting to see some impressive work by next class. One of my very talented classmates has outdone me and for once I wasn't the one to put the class to shame. Congratulations, you know who you are. I've finally got competition and now I'm going to step it up! This is going to be fun!

The professor started off class by checking our animation homework; rotating head with follow through and overlapping action, as usual. I think we all did pretty good! Then he checked our various character sheets. You know, the two pages worth of characters we had to have done last week? There were some of us who didn't do so well, although I think everyone had some cute and unique character ideas. The professor would like for some or all of us to try again and this time try not to make the characters flat. Instead of having the characters stand on one line make it so they have some dimension to them. For example try putting one foot in back of the other as if the character is standing on a stairs. Another way to avoid flat characters is to make the pose of the character very dramatic or dynamic. You can also try to add values by shading and blending with your tortillion. Use the 300 model sheets the professor gave us to help you develop better character ideas. Copy the model sheets from the Drop Box.The professor wants us to pick 2 of our custom created characters and draw model sheets of them in different poses with different expressions. Here is an example of what our model sheets should look like when we are done: Click Here. You can also get that sheet from the Drop Box I believe or the professor's site by Clicking Here. Also keep in mind that the professor will check our Vilppu sketches by the next class so have them on hand and ready.

Today's lesson was Antic, short for Anticipation.

"Anticipation (some times called ANTIC)

is one of the most important animation principles that plays a main

role in bringing life to a character. We all know the meaning of the term

Anticipation. In general we use the term to express a waiting of the next move.

In animation terms anticipation means a character getting prepared to perform an

action, it means that when a character anticipates, he is also in the process of

The character we create will be pulling back with anticipation to gather energy aka build strength to launch forward for a punch, which ends with anticipation as well after the punch is made the character eases back in to a less stretched pose. There are 2 versions to this, one is as I explained and the second adds a bigger fist to the animation making it look as if the fist is coming out toward you as it rounds and shoots up for the punch. We will be working on the first one today.

-There is a path for each body part. (Head, Body, Right Fist) First practice drawing the character according to the picture above. You can use your red carmine pencil or blue. I would suggest using the blue one because we were given more blue pencils than red. The character has a round circular head.
-Next draw the character's line of action; the line of action is like the character's spine. You will draw the body on this line as well. The body begins with a small circle that overlaps the head where the neck should be. The end of the body is a round circle as well, slightly smaller than the head. Connect the small circle of the body to the bigger circle of the body to create a smooth pear like shape.
-The feet are ovals that connect to the body with slightly bent legs. The legs barely have knees, which bend closer to the feet.
-Start the hands like circles as well, connecting them to the upper half of the body accordingly. Draw the thumbs in as well.

When you have practiced drawing the character enough you can start the key drawings. Begin with key drawing number 1 below and make your way to each pose after. (Important key drawings: 1, 7, 9, 11, 19)

As you animate, the body begins to twist, going around and leaning to the right slightly squishing with anticipation. The fist comes down to make its round. The head turns and looks downward following the body.

The fist then launches upward, body following and stretching while the legs straighten and the character's weight shifts to the left foot while the right foot stands on toe. The head looks in the direction the fist is aiming. The last pose eases the body back to its normal form. The right foot lifts into the air while the left leg bends. The left hand is extending backwards while the right wrist pulls back slightly to a less strenuous pose.

Use the Timing charts above to guide you in drawing the extra pages. You can get a look at each key pose by itself when you visit the professor's site by Clicking Here. Remember to draw each of the following poses: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, and 19. You can draw the in between, in between drawings as well for a smoother flow animation.

Remember to darken the limbs farthest from you and keep the feet in the same position, they should not move forward or backward for any of the poses. You are welcome to add things to your character to give it personality, but the most important part is the animation. Use a creative 2 point perspective background. You can also have your character hitting something that will react to the punch. Use your imagination! Film your character on 3's, 2's and 1's as usual; follow the format below:

BTW: You will need about 10- ll sheets of large acme punched paper for this assignment. If you plan on doing the in between, in between drawings you may want to pick up 19-20 sheets.

*When you are finished filming your Character Punch Antic you should take maybe the first page and clean it up a bit. The professor wants one cleaned up frame so that we can scan it and he will show us how to fix it up on Photoshop.

*Don't forget to make those model sheets for your 2 main characters. Later we will narrow it down to just one character that we will be drawing for the rest of our semesters in the professor's classes.

*Make more posts to your portfolio blog sites so the professor can see your progress.